Social and Cultural History of Japan Through Music Education: Soap Bubbles

By the time this song was written, Ujoo had experienced many deaths, both in his private life and in society at large. His own daughter had died much earlier, but the pain from the loss of his child never left him. However, the song was written not just to commemorate his daughter’s death. Ujoo also dedicated this song to all the children who had died before maturity, with the hope that all causes of mortality which consumed the lives of the weakest, the children, will diminish. In 1918, the Spanish flu killed 150,000 Japanese, many of whom were children. Moreover, many Japanese were poor in this period, and natural or unnatural deaths of children were common occurrences. Despite Ujoo’s hope, 8 months after the song’s debut, the Great Kanto Earthquake consumed many lives.


Shabondama (Soap Bubbles) Year: Unknown Composer: Shinpei Nakayama Poet: Ujoo Noguchi Click to play sound:	Lyrics: Shabondama tonda Yane made tonda Yane made tonde Kowarete kieta	Translation: One soap bubble flies up. To the roof it flies, up to the roof it flies. Now it’s burst, and has vanished!
	Shabondama kieta Tobazu ni kieta Umarete sugu ni Kowarete kieta	A soap bubble vanished, No flying it has disappeared. Right away, after its birth it has burst, and has vanished.
	Kaze kaze hukuna Shabondama tobaso	Wind, wind, please don’t blow! For we want to see our bubbles fly!
By the time this song was written, Ujoo had experienced many deaths, both in his private life and in society at large. His own daughter had died much earlier, but the pain from the loss of his child never left him. However, the song was written not just to commemorate his daughter’s death. Ujoo also dedicated this song to all the children who had died before maturity, with the hope that all causes of mortality which consumed the lives of the weakest, the children, will diminish. In 1918, the Spanish flu killed 150,000 Japanese, many of whom were children. Moreover, many Japanese were poor in this period, and natural or unnatural deaths of children were common occurrences. Despite Ujoo’s hope, 8 months after the song’s debut, the Great Kanto Earthquake consumed many lives.
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